Qatar & Bahrain

Doha rebuilt its old commercial harbour around a dedicated superyacht zone rather than bolt one onto a resort: Old Doha Port now holds 450 berths on the Corniche, a few minutes from I. M. Pei's Museum of Islamic Art and the dhow harbour it stands beside — dhows being the region's traditional wooden sailing craft, still the working boats of the old port's inner basin. A short hop north, Porto Arabia at The Pearl-Qatar runs one of the largest marina basins in the Middle East around nearly five kilometres of boardwalk. West across some eighty nautical miles of shoal-strewn Gulf water, Bahrain trades scale for depth: Amwaj Marina's own superyacht dock, Muharraq's UNESCO-listed Pearling Path tracing the oyster beds that paid for this coast before oil was found, and the restricted flamingo reserve of the Hawar Islands, close to the old Qatar–Bahrain sea border. The season runs November to April, well clear of a Gulf summer nobody local recommends chartering through.

“No causeway joins the two yet, so the crossing is made much as the pearling dhows always made it — by water.”

Signature anchorages

Two purpose-built superyacht quays and a private island in Doha; a marina, a UNESCO pearling trail and a restricted nature reserve in Bahrain — one Gulf crossing between the two halves of the week.

• Old Doha PortQatar's only superyacht-scale marina — 450 berths in the redeveloped old commercial harbour, including a dedicated zone for around 50 vessels between 50 and 160 metres LOA (length overall). Minakom, the port's digital service, now clears crew and passports without anyone leaving the boat.
• Porto Arabia, The Pearl-QatarThe region's largest marina basin — upwards of 900 berths from 7 to 60-plus metres around the Pearl's artificial peninsula, two dedicated superyacht basins, charted depth from 4.6m. Ronautica operates the marina; the Corinthia Yacht Club runs its superyacht side.
• Four Seasons Marina, West BayA smaller, quieter option on Doha's West Bay beachfront — around 112 berths to 35m LOA, Nobu Doha built out over the water at its edge.
• Banana IslandA crescent reef and sandbank some twenty minutes off the Corniche by tender; no berths for a vessel of any size, so anchor off in the lee and land by tender, sharing the approach with the resort's own guest catamarans running from Doha's Shyoukh Port.
• Amwaj Marina & Reef Island, BahrainThe crossing's landfall — 145 deep-water berths plus a 140m dock built for four superyachts, six metres alongside. Reef Island, the newer waterfront development immediately south, is building out its own yacht harbour as its Marina Bay district develops.
• Muharraq & the Pearling PathSeventeen merchant houses, the seafront Bu Maher Fort and three oyster beds offshore, walked as a single 3.5km UNESCO trail — the last complete example of a pearling economy left standing anywhere. No yacht berths on old Muharraq's waterfront; land by tender near the fort or arrange the crossing through the marina.
• Hawar IslandsA protected wetland reserve some 20km south of the main island — flamingos, dugongs and Arabian oryx — with access restricted by the coast guard and a military presence offshore. Visit through a licensed local operator rather than an unplanned tender run; regular trip boats also run from Duraz Port.

The scene

Table & stay ashore

A week, sketched

Pair with